HC Slovan Bratislava — HC Kosice 6:1 (0:0, 3:1, 3:0)
Goals and assists: 23. Bačik (Puliš), 28. Urbánek (Kytnár, Sr. Pierre), 37. Matoušek (Sersen, Abdul), 55. Kytnár (Sersen, Basaraba), 56. Bondra (Šedivý), 60. Basaraba (Bondra) — 31. Skokan (Květoň)
Penalized players: 5:6 for two minutes, power plays: 3:0 defense play: 0-0, referees: Baluška, D. Konc Sr. — Synek, J. Konc ml., 9445 visitors
HC Slovan Bratislava Brust (Habal) – Bačik, Sersen (C), Štajnoch, Meszároš (A), Šedivý, Kučný, Demo – Puliš, Zigo, Abdul – Basaraba, Sr. Pierre, Bondra – Kukumberg (A), Kytnár, Matoušek – Jendek, Urbánek, Žitný – Petráš
HC Kosice: Košarišťan (Škorvánek) – Růžička, Slovák, Koch (A), Pavlin, Repe, Čížek (A), Zeleňák – Haščák, Skokan (C), Květoň – Klhůfek, Chovan, Belluš – Suja, Bortňák, Rapáč – Jokeľ, Eliáš, Milý
It is well known among hockey fans that matches between Slovan and Kosice offer an extraordinarily high pace. The same proved to be true in their last duel of the season — both teams competed intensively and got to each other's defense zones right from the start. First greater scoring chance for Kosice came at the end of 3rd minute. Mily together with Skokan outnumbered Slovan 2-on-1 passing the puck to the stick of the captain of HC Kosice. Skokan fired a shot, and even though he broke through Brust, he didn't manage to score as the goal construction helped Bratislava. On the opponent's side, Zigo had an opportunity to score in the 8th minute. The puck bounced to him, but Kosaristan managed to send the puck to the corner of the rink. The tempo of the game slowed down a little bit in the following minutes. Sedivy was not successful, and neither Klhufek with his strong swing. At the beginning of 17th minute, Jokel had a good plan when he fired a shot at Brust right from the goal line. But goalie of Bratislava was careful enough and didn't let Jokel score. Since defenses of the both teams gave a high-quality performance, the first period of the game ended without a goal.
The players decided to alter the score during the second period. And they managed to do so relatively quickly. Unfortunately, after 30 seconds of play, the chance of Slovák didn't end with a goal. Brust's goal construction was against the experienced defenseman of Kosice. Bratislava scored in 23rd minute, when Bacik got the puck right in front of the crease, so he didn't have any reason to miss such chance. Slovan had an opportunity to get to two goal leading relatively quickly when a minute and a half later, Sedivy hit the construction of the goal. The players from Slovan scored again in 28th minute, when Urbanek fired a precise shot during the power-play. Slovan was on fire, but Kosice didn’t plan to give up. 31st minute confirmed this fact. Brust underestimated the passed puck, he lost control over it and let Skokan send the puck right to the net, so the Steelers scored the contact goal. This goal encouraged Kosice, and in 35th minute, Rapac tried to tie the score. Unfortunately, his shot was too high and ended up behind the goal. Final goal of the second period was scored in 37th minute, when Matousek scored the contact goal to the Steelers' net. After 40 minutes, Slovan was leading 3:1.
If the players from the eastern metropolis wanted to gain more points, they had to alter the two-goal leadership. In any case, Slovan focused on its defense, so it was very tough for Kosice. It became especially harder when they did not use the power-play at the beginning of the final period. Paradoxically, Kosice got a chance to score after the power-play. Koch fired a good shot and Klhufek tried to send the puck into the net. But the shot slightly turned, flew over Brust's goal and landed at the boards. On the opposite side of the rink, Abdul tried to strike, but his attempt was not precise, so Kosaristan could stay calm. The situation changed during the power-play of Slovan which boosted Slovan into the final goal strike. Kytnar altered the score to 4:1 for Slovan. Kosice tried to get through the goalie in the last 4 minutes, but Bondra scored into the empty net of the Steelers. Basaraba changed the final score to 6:1.
Roman Stantien, coach of Slovan: "We were very careful during the first period. The teams were only testing each other. Later on, we managed to score during power-plays, and even tough we conceded a goal, we managed to break the opponent. Today, the team hanged together, we played a high-quality game."
Peter Draisaitl, coach of Kosice: "It seemed to me as if I was looking at the match between boys and men. We didn't win any fight, except our goal. I think this awaits everyone, today we were the ones who suffered. I believe that today's result will be effective, and that some people will realize that we are not as good as we appear to be."
